Prime Minister : I Can Free David Hicks Whenever I Want...

But I'm Not Going To

David Hicks is probably the most famous and easily recognised name in Australia at the moment. His plight has generated enormous publicity in the Australian media, and for the past three months, much of that spotlight's glare has been downright sympathetic.

Which is remarkable, when you consider that the US military accuses 31 year old David Hicks of aiding terrorists and attempting to commit murder.

He is one of the Guantanamo Bay detainees that President Bush, and former US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, used to refer to as, "killers who kill" and "the worst of the worst."

For five years, Hicks has been isolated, tortured, deprived of sunlight, of sensory stimulation, of human contact. His lawyers claim he has become like a tired, old man, desperate and despondent. They fear he may prove to be mentally unfit to stand trial.

Hicks spends 22 hours a day in what his lawyer has described as a "steel cell". He is under constant surveillance, in order to prevent suicide attempts.

Hicks's lawyer, David McLeod, spent four days visiting Hicks In Guantanamo Bay last week :

"...when I left David on the Thursday, in my 30 years of professional life it was one of the hardest and most heartrending things I had to do.

To look him in the eye and say "David, I don't know when we'll be seeing you again, we'll do our best for you", but it was like looking into the eyes of someone dying from a potentially fatal illness who is being denied the life saving drug that would cure his ill and to leave him in that state alone with his thoughts, nobody to talk to, nobody to comfort him, it was a very heartrending thing for me to do...."

The US military have denied Hicks the opportunity of independent psychiatric assessment. No doubt they fear that any psychiatrist given access to a man like Hicks, who has been detained in such conditions for so long, is going to shout long and loud about the intolerable inhumanity inflicted upon him.

Last week the US Military announced they were planning to finally charge Hicks, but last night they revealed it could be months more before Hicks even gets close to facing trial by the reconstituted military tribunal.

Three years ago, most Australians would have not recognised David Hicks' name, or known why he was being held hostage by the American military in Guantanamo Bay.

But they know who he is now.

They know his face, they know parts of his life story, they are seeing images of him as a bright-eyed kid on a televised ad campaign, and they know the pain and torment his aging father has suffered while the Howard government refused to even pressure President Bush to get the Australian charged and on trial for four long years.

It was only after shocking polls showed just how much support the 'trial now or release him' demands by campaigners had found amongst the Australian public that John Howard was finally seen to be putting at least some pressure on his "close friend" President Bush.

As a sign of the extraordinary change in how Australian view Hicks' plight, a story about his extended detention and shattered mental state was aired last night on the highest rating current affairs in the country, and there was barely a mention that he was a suspected terrorist, or that he had been 'captured' by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks and sold for a bounty to US forces.

The story on Today Tonight stuck to a new script determined by polls that showed more than 70% of Australians were vastly unhappy with how the Howard government has dealt with the Hicks fiasco.

Almost 50% of Australians said that what happened to David Hicks would affect the choices they made come election day.

Remarkably, the demands by the Australian public that Hicks either face a fair trial for his alleged crimes or be set free is now shaping up to be one of the four key election decisions that will determine whether or not John Howard remains prime minister of Australia come 2008.



Prime minister Howard admitted yesterday that he can get David Hicks out of Guantanamo Bay any time he wants to.

But he won't do it, because he believes Hicks must face the terrorism-related charges set to be filed by the US Military, despite the fact that virtually no reputable law firm or expert in the world believes the trials proposed by the US military will come close to being fair, or just.

When Howard told his coalition MPs yesterday afternoon, on the first day that federal parliament resumed for 2007, that he could get the United States to set Hicks free, at least six MPs demanded to know why Howard wouldn't allow Hicks to come home.

Howard replied that Hicks couldn't be tried for his alleged crimes in Australia, as no offence under Australian law been committed at the time he was captured.

What Howard is saying is that he cannot stomach the fact that Hicks could be flown home to Australia and go free, to be reunited with his family after five long years.

But Australians have grown very aware of how their prime minister has manipulated them over the past decade, and they will be extremely suspicious if Howard manages to secure the release of David Hicks in the coming weeks.

If Howard thinks he can now boost his rapidly diminishing chances of winning the upcoming federal elections by Hicks out of Gitmo, before he faces trial, he's going to be in for a shocker of a surprise.

Hicks coming home would make the vast majority of Australians very happy, but that is unlikely to translate into votes for Howard. If anything, it may make Australians even more cynical about the prime minister's motivations, and his humanity.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

(Howard) indicated yesterday he would not let him languish indefinitely, saying he would set the US further timelines for the case to be dealt with.

He earlier gave the US until the middle of this month for Mr Hicks to be charged. At the weekend, two new charges were sworn against Mr Hicks but have not yet been approved or laid.

Lawyers from the US State Department said yesterday it was unlikely he would be formally charged by mid-February, and it was too early to say whether he would be tried within a year.

The Prime Minister said public sentiment was shifting and the matter had not been well handled by the Americans.

But this did not deter backbenchers from speaking out, saying it was not the person but the process that concerned them.

....MPs pointed out that Mr Hicks's case was becoming a "big concern" in the community.

The West Australian senator Judith Adams said a Labor victory in a state byelection in Perth over the weekend was in part fuelled by anger over Mr Hicks and Iraq.

Mr Howard dismissed this.

Labor's legal affairs spokesman, Kelvin Thomson, said Mr Howard's claim exposed the whole process as a joke.

"If the Prime Minister is claiming he can determine, and therefore by default, is determining David Hicks's fate, this is outrageous," Mr Thomson said.

New Charges Against David Hicks Announced : Is That All They've Got On Him?

Attorney General Approves Use Of "Coerced Evidence" Against Hicks In Trial

Hicks' Lawyer : "He's Clearly On The Spiral Of Despair"

Come To Beautiful Australia....

And Die

2433 Visitors Met Their Deaths Down Under In Seven Years

Invisible rips off some of Australia's most beautiful beaches, car accidents, crocodiles, crazed koalas that can "carve up" the unsuspecting, serial killers, poisonous spiders, the unforgiving heat - there's plenty of ways backpackers and tourists can come to grief in Australia.

And thousands of them have. More than 2400 'visitors' have died in this land during the past seven years alone, including some 25 children, according to the Bureau of Statistics :

Between 2003 and 2005, 28 tourists drowned while 65 were killed in car crashes and another 276 died of natural causes.

Heat stroke claimed the lives of three tourists, seven died scuba diving or snorkelling, two died hiking, one died parachuting and another died after being bitten by an animal.

Men, apparently, are three times more likely to lose their lives while visiting Australia than women are.

Remember blow-ins, you're not the Crocodile Hunter, leave the animals alone. They've got a taste for the blood of foreigners, and they like it.

...The Australian Reptile Park's Craig Adams said tourists should admire native wildlife without touching. They should also know first aid, he said.

"Going bush here is a far cry from the urbane European lifestyle," he said.

"Crocodiles can be found in the most unlikely areas, a mud pool can hold a 4m or 5m crocodile.

"People don't realise a koala will give you a nasty bite or carve you up with its claws, a wombat can knock you over but that does not mean they are going to attack."

Of course, the stats on dead and injured visitors are actually quite small in comparison to the millions of tourists who visit Australia and suffer nothing worse than brain-melting hangovers and skin-peeling sun burn.

Or is that just what we want the rest of the world to think?

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He Stood Up, He Put His Hands In The Air, He Sat Down Again

Then The Police Threw Him Out Of The Cricket Ground



22 year old Mathew Newtown was escorted from a cricket match in Sydney yesterday for standing up and then sitting down again.

Has Australia become that much of a police state? How can a person be ejected from a public event for standing up and sitting down?

Newtown was doing 'The Mexican Wave'.

And Mexican Waves are now banned at all Melbourne Cricket Ground matches and events. In fact, the Cricket Australia has implemented a "No Wave" policy at all its matches.

Newtown was at the New Zealand V Australia match with protest on his mind. He decided he would engage in civil disobedience to make a point - that banning the Mexican Wave at the cricket was fun-policing gone too far.

Newtown said :

"The MCG is the people's ground. Cricket Australia seems to have forgotten that but the people here certainly haven't. The Mexican wave will survive."

While many spectators were keen to be part of any wave, most were unwilling to risk ejection for instigating one. And those who did take part were keen not to be too rowdy as police warned the public that plainclothes officers were ready to hand out $210 on-the-spot fines to those caught throwing objects.

Victoria Police Superintendent Stephen Leane said that while his officers did not want to take the fun out of watching the cricket, "there is serious risk of injury because of the throwing of missiles".

Some at the Melbourne Cricket Ground were happy about the ban. Melbourne mother Pamela said :

"I'm delighted that steps have been taken to ban such an abhorrent act..."

Abhorrent act?

Others were not happy :

"It gets everyone involved,...If it starts up I'll get involved. But I wouldn't get caught starting one. And I wouldn't throw anything in the air. That's why the problem has started."

Friends Thea and Jo from Camberwell said they were forced to consider whether they wanted to attend yesterday's game once they heard that the Mexican wave had been outlawed.

"It's only dangerous when people throw things in the air, otherwise it's the whole crowd united."

You can't smoke at the cricket, you can't drink excessively, you can't hurl random abuse, you can't stand up and sit down too quickly, and you can't even throw paper airplanes.

You just have to sit and watch people occasionally hit a ball with a stick, no matter how mind-numbingly tedious it gets.

And we thought the crowd-surfing ban at rock gigs was beyond a joke.

The "No Wave" Cricket Australia policy is beyond the beyond.

It is still legal, however, for the Melbourne Cricket Ground to charge $5, or more, for a meat pie.

That abhorrent act is unlikely to be banned any time soon.

New Charges Against David Hicks Announced

Is That All They've Got?

New charges against David Hicks, an Australian held hostage in Guantanamo Bay for more than five years, have been announced. He is set to be charged with attempted murder, and supplying material support for terrorism.

If convicted Hicks could face life in an American prison.

But is that it?

Is that really all they've got on him, if the charges even stand up to the scrutiny of a trial?

After all these years, that's it?

The attempted murder charge is serious enough, but it's going to be all but impossible to prove, even in the highly questionable processes of a military tribunal.

Material support for terrorism is a meaningless charge, with no precedent under the rules of war, if that's how the US military actually intends to actually pursue such a charge against Hicks.

But these charges have only been announced. They are only in draft form for now.

Hicks still hasn't actually been formally charged with anything.

That process alone could take weeks longer. The charges have to be thoroughly reviewed before Hicks is formally charged with attempted murder and 'aiding' terrorism.

And before Hicks is formally charged, the accusations could be tossed out during the review process.

Hicks may be home sooner than most may think.

From smh.com.au :

Colonel Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor for the upcoming military commissions, announced Hicks and two other Guantanamo Bay inmates would be the first three to be brought to trial.

Hicks's American-appointed military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, questioned the validity of both proposed charges in light of comments made by Col Davis in a recent media interview with Australia's ABC.

"The old charge of attempted murder has reappeared even after the chief prosecutor has admitted to the ABC that there is no evidence that David shot at anyone in Afghanistan," Maj Mori said.

"The charge of material support is not part of the law of war and does not appear in any US or Australian military manual as a law of war offence.

"What is most disturbing is that while Australian ministers have consistently said that creating a new law and applying it retrospectively to David Hicks is inappropriate, the same ministers are encouraging the US administration to apply a new law created less than four months ago retrospectively to David Hicks.

"This is something the United States will not do to Americans."

Col Davis' proposed charges will be handed to US military judge Susan Crawford who has been appointed the military commission's Convening Authority.

Judge Crawford may approve the charges, or she could reject them.

Charges approved by Judge Crawford would then be the charges Hicks faced at a military commission trial held at the US naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Hicks and other inmates are housed.

Prime Minister "Glad" New Charges Have Been Drafted Against Hicks

Federal Justice Minister : "Five Years Without Trial Is...Totally Inappropriate"

Australia's Defence Establishment Calls For Hicks' Release

Was David Hicks Shown Imagery Of Saddam Hussein's Hanging In An Attempt To Drive Him To Commit Suicide?

John Howard's Heart Of Stone : Sudden Interest In Hick's Five Year Long Illegal Detention Brought On By Suprise Polls That Show 7 Out Of 10 Australians Want Hicks Charged Or Released

Boxer Anthony Mundine Likens The Decimation Of The Australian Aboriginals To The Jewish Holocaust

By Darryl Mason

There's a few Australians, including the NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, who would prefer that Anthony Mundine just shut the hell up and do what they say he's supposed to be doing - preparing for a title boxing match due in a few weeks time.

And he is one hell of a boxer. But world champion Anthony Mundine is also an Aboriginal, and he's a Muslim. Plus, he's getting mouthy. He's got plenty to say, on behalf of Aboriginal Australians, whether most of them want him to speak on his behalf or not.

But an Aboriginal Muslim with high media exposure spells 'Danger Zone' for those who live in fear of the day coming when Islam becomes the predominant religion of Australian Aboriginals.

You can read a previous story here about the music video Mundine's made, where he tries out his chops as a rapper-storyteller, while Redfern Aboriginals shred photos of the prime minister, John Howard, and a Union Jack flag goes up in flames.

But it's the words Mundine spoke today that are likely to set off fires in the media far bigger than his controversial video.

Mundine has claimed that the decimation of the Aboriginal population under the invasion and occupation of the British, from the 1770s onwards, is comparable to what Nazi Germany did to the European Jews in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Governors of the early colonies estimated the Aboriginal population of Australia at around 200,000 in the late 1700s. By the early 1900s, there were fewer than 80,000, by most reputable estimates.

Aboriginals have lived on the Australian continent for 60,000 to more than 100,000 years. Although there was never a written language, Aboriginals developed incredibly complex social, tribal and family structures, and used a language of symbols, paintings and rock carvings to communicate with other tribes, and to leave markers for where to find the best hunting and food stocks in thousands of areas across the continent.

Some of the hundreds of Aboriginal tribes that lived and thrived in Australia for thousands of generations worshipped the sun as a creation entity, tens of thousands of years before Ancient Egyptians came up with the concept of Ra.

From the late 1700s onwards, Aboriginals were massacred, hunted for sport, exposed to alcohol (close to a deadly toxin for many Aboriginals), decimated by viruses brought in by colonists and treated as slave labour, sometimes in conditions that led to a premature demise.

There has been a rigorous attempt by the extreme right wing of politicians and historians in Australia, in the past two decades, to whitewash such facts out of our collective history. Prime Minister John Howard dismissively refers to "the black arm band" of Australia's history, as though we are supposed to forget what happened here, as though it is unimportant to the state and fate of the nation.

But as the reconciliation movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s showed, along with the unofficial 'Sorry Day', most Australians would agree with Mundine's words below : that there was a Holocaust of Aborigines, and it was conducted under the Union Jack.

Or as some Indonesians still call it, 'The Butcher's Apron.'

From the AAP :

Boxer Anthony Mundine has likened the British treatment of Aborigines to the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

"John Howard has got to step to the plate, admit he is wrong, just like the Germans did back in the day and admitted under Hitler what they did and then moved forward," Mundine told Channel Nine.

He said the Union Jack was not a symbol to be proud of.

"It symbolises murder, raping, pillaging of the native people of the land," he said.

"The burning of the flag, we burn it, or the people burnt it, because they want to wash away with the dark side, with the dark past that Australia's got in its history and let's move forward, get a more unified place for the people."

Story continues below...

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Mundine is right.

The majority of Australians are waiting for a true reconciliation, but John Howard refuses to let this become part of his political legacy, even though in decades to come such a move for reconciliation would feature more prominently, and positively, in the history books than just about anything else he has done in his decade in office.

Mudine waits, Aboriginal Australians wait, as we all wait.

Australia is not a British colony anymore, we're not an outpost under the Union Jack. And the sooner we truly, officially, recognise what has been to the original people of this land, the better.

For everyone.

John Birmingham Gives One White Man's Response To Mundine: Shut Up And Box

John Howard's Image And Union Jack Torn To Shred And Burnt In Mundine's Video

Former Gitmo Detainee In Run For State Parliament, Claims Anti-Terror Laws Are Pointless

Habib : "We Have No Terrorists In Australia"

Australian Mamdouh Habib spent three years in Guantanamo Bay, after being renditioned through Egypt from Pakistan, a time during which he claims he was repeatedly tortured, and abused, before he was released without charge in early 2005.

Now he's making a controversial run for the NSW State Parliament.

Habib has certainly got his independent campaign off to a headline-worthy start, claiming that Australia's new, and extremely broad, anti-terror laws are not necessary because, "We have no terrorists in Australian, I believe."

"The terror laws are if you have terrorists....This country is a peaceful country," Habib said of his adopted homeland. "I believe Australia is the best country in the world."

Habib is running for the seat of Auburn, home to thousands of Muslims, and long regarded as a "safe seat" for the State Labor government.

He said he is not concerned that his chances of winning a seat in parliament are not great, only that the voice of the local people is heard, and that human rights for Australian citizens are protected.

Habib's announcement that he was stepping into politics was greeted with a near hysterical reaction by the NSW's premier, Morris Iemma. He called Habib an "extremist" and said his campaign was "lunacy".

Habib is unfazed.

"I don't care about Morris Iemma or (prime minister) John Howard, I worry about myself," he was quoted here as saying :

"I have no answer to anyone saying Mr Habib is an extremist. We're here to focus on what we must try to do in our area. Whatever anyone says, I have no problem."

He said he would be campaigning for free speech and human rights,

"....the right of freedom of expression and in opposition to the anti-terrorist laws, state and federal".

"The right to fight racism, the end of scapegoating of Aborigines, Muslims and migrants...The right to oppose Australia's involvement in Iraq."

Habib's campaign is supported by the Auburn Human Rights Group.

Campaign manager for the Auburn Human Rights Group, Raul Bassi, said Habib's campaign had won the group's support because he believed the Liberal and Labor parties had nothing new to offer the citzens of Auburn :

"All they have to offer is more privatisation, less money for people's needs and lots of empty promises with hidden agendas," Mr Bassi said.

"The aim of the campaign is to reclaim our diminishing human rights, negated every day by the state and federal governments, and to organise people who are prepared to fight for them."

Crocodile 'Catches" Man On The Run For Police

Deputise That Croc

Every time the police got close to the man's house, he would bolt into long grass on the edge of a crocodile infested Daly River, south of Darwin.

The police wanted to talk to the man about why he had, allegedly, breached his bail conditions.

But he always saw them coming, and he always pulled off the long grass disappearing act.

The police tried again last night, around 8pm, and again the man bolted to the riverbank. The police searched for him in the long grass, but no luck.

A few hours later, the man re-appeared at a neighbour's house. He had wounds to his head and one hand, the blood flowed.

He claimed he had been attacked and bitten on the head by a crocodile.

He is now in Darwin hospital.

The police can see the "funny side" of the attack.

Acting Police Superintendent Tony Fuller told ABC Radio the police wouldn't mind hearing from the crocodile. They might even have a job for it :

"The crocodile, we want to hire the crocodile...he catches them for us doesn't he?" he said.

Authorities say the man's injuries are not serious and he is in a stable condition.

Prime Minister Banned From Visiting Fiji

Australia's prime minister, John Howard, has had his name put on a "watch list" held by immigration officials, of persons now barred from entering Fiji.

The dramatic action follows the Australian government's loud opposition to the recent military takeover of the island nation, and calls from Australia's foreign minister for unarmed locals to rise up against the well-armed military.

The ban also includes the prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clarke, and restricts the exit of certain people from Fiji. Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, is also believed to be on the list.

"...trade union officials, civil rights activists and (certain) businesspeople" have also made the "watch list" of those who can enter and leave the country :

The move against the two leaders - both vocal critics of coup leader Frank Bainimarama - followed Canberra's decision to ban the military chief, who is Fiji's interim Prime Minister, and his supporters from coming to Australia.

Australia and New Zealand have also imposed sanctions on the military regime after it overthrew the elected government on December 5.

As we reported on December 7 :

Despite explicit warnings from the military leaders now in control of Fiji not to interfere, Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has again urged unarmed Fijians to engage in a resistance against military.

Downer's calls for resistance, aired also for a third day in federal Parliment, follow warnings from Commodore Frank Bainimarama that "...should we be forced to use force, let me state that we will do so very quickly."

In an interview, Downer said of his call for civilian resistance against Fiji's military : "It is wise...Of course it's difficult for them and my heart goes out to a lot of them."

There was no organised resistance to the military takeover of Fiji, and the military dictatorship said it is now committed to rooting out the institutionalised corruption that it claims forced it to overthrow the government late last year.

December 2006 : Australia's Foreign Minister Urges Insurgency In Fiji Against Military

Hiding Out In The Jungle

Accused Assassin Lays Low As Howard Denies Involvement In Plot To Assassinate Solomon Islands' Prime Minister

A follow-up to our story here on the alleged conspiracy to kill the Solomon Islands' prime minister by an Australian ex-pat.

The Australian prime minister, John Howard, dismissed claims that his government was somehow involved in the plot, or had offered a $50,000 bounty for a successful slaying of the Solomon Islands prime minister.

"Did we try and get anybody to assassinate the prime minister of the Solomon Islands? Of course not," Howard said.

"It is preposterous to suggest that the Australian government had any involvement in this alleged assassination attempt," read a statement from his office.

"We would expect that these allegations would be rigorously and fairly examined, that innuendo would be dismissed and the facts would be established."

From news.com.au (excerpts) :

An accused assassin hiding in the jungle in the Solomon Islands is allegedly involved in a plot with an Australian war veteran to murder the nation's Prime Minister.

Police today said they were hunting for former Solomons police sergeant Edmund Sae in relation to an alleged conspiracy to kill Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

They believe Mr Sae – an alleged double murderer – plotted with Australian Vietnam war veteran Bill Johnson to kill Sogavare last month.

Mr Sae has been on the run since escaping from a Solomons jail, before he could be tried for the February 2003 assassination of former police commissioner Frederick Soaki. He is also accused of murdering a second police officer following his escape.

Mr Sae has remained in hiding in the jungles of Malaita island, where Mr Johnson has his home.

Police allege that in early 2003, Mr Sae donned a mask and walked up to commissioner Soaki at a restaurant in the Malaitan capital, Auki, and shot him in the head at point blank range.

Police have claimed Mr Johnson conspired with four others, including Mr Sae, to assassinate Mr Sogavare some time between January 18 and 23.

It's alleged the plot was hatched during a drinking session at a Honiara motel, but it is unlikely the fugitive Mr Sae, if he was involved, would have dared enter the Solomons capital.

Mr Johnson, 61, is the only one of the group located and charged so far, but Honiara residents who know him have scoffed at suggestions he was involved in a murder conspiracy.

They say he is a "harmless drunk" who is nicknamed the Mad Major and is known for his binge drinking sessions when he visits Honiara from his island home.

"He gets on monumental benders that last for days and his mouth just runs away with him," said Honiara businessman Alastair Martin, a New Zealander, yesterday.

"It's pathetic that someone has taken his ramblings seriously."

Australian Vietnam Vet Accused Of Plotting To Assassinate Solomon Islands PM For $50,000 Bounty

"Send More Women!"

Captain Arthur Phillip Writes Home From Sydney Cove And Contemplates Playing Matchmaker To The New Colony

An interesting extract and some notes below from a letter by Captain Arthur Phillip about the problems facing the newly arrived convict hordes at Sydney Cove, Australia's first non-indigenous settlement.

In short, "Send More Women!"

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Captain Phillip shows his softer side, expressing concern for the wellbeing of "some of the greatest villains that ever existed". He writes that currants, barley sugar, rice and spices are inadequate as medical supplies. Despite the stock of "wine for the use of the sick", the convicts strangely continue to fall ill in large numbers.

Captain Phillip appears hugely concerned about the shortage of women for the new colony, and fancies himself a matchmaker. He suggests an increase in the number of "frail fair ones" on the First Fleet to lift the ratio of one woman to five or six men.

"Without women, no colony can thrive - and a deficient number will certainly occasion … at length bloodshed, not to mention more odious consequences," he writes.

"There can be no objection (except the expense of their transportation) to supplying the colonists with plenty of mates - each convict, if encouraged, might easily find himself a companion …

"The method used by the Regent of France, when he colonised New Orleans, might be adopted …

"The men were forced to draw lots and were married to the women, pointed out by correspondent marks, before they were permitted to have any liberty on shore. Their eagerness for a commerce from which they had long been restrained made them take their destined spouse with readiness, and we do not find that these predetermined weddings turned out worse than the run of marriages commonly do."

Captain Phillip's insightful theory that a lack of women in the new colony would bring "bloodshed" amongst the men is a scene that still plays out in Sydney nightclubs today, when the booze flows and the men outnumber the women.

Captain Phillip's concerns about what the men might do to each other if the shortage of womenfolk continued - "...more odious consequences..." probably speaks for itself, though
Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore, which brilliantly catalogued the despair and desires of the new colony, makes a number of references to gay convict love affairs. Punishable by severe floggings, for some.

Australian Vietnam Vet Accused Of Plotting To Assassinate Solomon Islands Prime Minister For $50,000 Bounty

By Darryl Mason

The relationship between Australia and the Solomon Islands has been deteriorating for more than two years, and news breaking this morning about an alleged assassination plot on the prime minister of the Solomon Islands by an Australian Vietnam veteran will only add to the rot.

61 year old veteran, William Johnson, has been charged over the alleged assassination conspiracy against Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare. Four other men, all Solomon Islands nationals, are alleged to have been involved, but they have not yet been named.

When Johnson appeared yesterday in the Honiara Magistrates Court, it was revealed an unnamed Australian "sponsor" may have also been involved in the conspiracy, offering a $50,000 bounty for the proposed killing.

Johnson has been living in the Solomon Islands for more than 15 years and is married to a local woman. He was referred to in some media reports as "a happy drunk" who frequented expat bars in Honiara.

'The Australian' newspaper is reporting that "prosecutors will allege that Mr Johnson initially approached an inspector in the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force for assistance in executing the plot to kill Mr Sogavare....

Mr Johnson allegedly thought the senior officer was an opponent of Mr Sogavare and would be able to ensure armed killers could pass through the checkpoints set up around the parliament and offices of the Prime Minister.

The plotters are alleged to have planned their conspiracy in the mountains of Malaita, a hotbed of past ethnic violence. The police inspector is understood to have informed Mr Sogavare's office and an investigation launched."

Prime minister Sogavare's Australian lawyers released information last night that detailed the charges against William Johnson :

"The man is alleged to have made statements to police that he, in company with other people not named in court, had made plans to assassinate the Prime Minister between the 18th and 23rd of this month..."

The magistrate refused Johnson's bail request, believing the chargers were serious enough that Johnson might try to leave the Solomon Islands to avoid prosecution.

William Johnson was discovered living in a discount motel in Honiara, where he was arrested by police.

The lawyer representing Johnson told Radio National that his client was denying the charges laid against him. He described the alleged assassination conspiracy plot as "crazy".

Johnson's lawyer said the prosecution had nothing more as evidence against Mr Johnson than "drunken conversations".


The assassination of Prime Minister Sogavare was allegedly planned to take place eight to twelve days ago, around the same time that Sogavare made it known to Australian government officials that he was going to deny their advice and re-arm local police who, he said, will form his personal security detail.

Prime Minister Sogavare described his soon-to-be-armed security force as a "close personal protection unit". Sogavare dismissed a personal guard comprising a number of Australian Federal Police in December last year, infuriating the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer.

According to the Solomon Star, the Australian Federal Police contingent have now withdrawn communications equipment and vehicles from use by the prime minister.

The Sogavare government has brought new vehicles for local police in recent days, along with walkie-talkies for communication purposes, although such communication devices provide next to no privacy and can be easily scanned.

The removal of the Australian police contingent, vehicles and equipment is believed to have come as a direct result of Sogavare's announcement that he will re-arm police. The objections from the Australian government were loud, constant and, according to Sogavare, "bullying tactics".

Sogavare hand-picked the dozen police officers for his personal security force. All twelve are now believed to be taking part in a specialised training program in Taiwan.

This action was described in Solomon Islands media as having "added fuel to the simmering stand-off between Honiara and Canberra."

Once training in Taiwan is complete, the twelve officers are expected to form a unit devoted to the prime minister's personal protection, as well as providing security for visiting VIPs and dignitaries.

Canberra argues that as many ex-militants, believed to have been involved in numerous outbreaks of civil disorder in the past seven years, are currently being released out of police custody, it is the wrong time to re-arm local police.

The Australian government fears the weapons will get into the hands of criminals and militants via the notorious Solomon Islands black market.

From the Solomons Star :

Locally, the move to rearm police has angered community leaders and community groups including the National Council of Women.

They have urged Prime Minister Sogavare to reconsider his decision for fear the guns could end up in the wrong hands.

Mr. Sogavare said the decision to rearm police was taken after he had consulted “a number of senior citizens” who he said had wholeheartedly supported the move.

However, many in the community fear that while rearming police was easy, disarming members of the public in the event the arms ended up in their hands, would be difficult, if not impossible.

In general, the government has dismissed these fears, claiming rearming the police is to protect Solomon Islands’ sovereignty.

An Australian led intervention force entered the Solomon Islands in 2003 and disarmed the police, some of whom were believed to have been involved in violence and corruption, and the smuggling of weapons to local militants.

The dramatic intervention was an attempt by the Australian government to restore peace and order to the islands, which had been wracked by ethnic-related violence for years.

In April 2006, fierce rioting led to violent looting of the Chinatown district of Honiara and the torching of dozens of buildings after locals were outraged by election results.

More than 110 Australian soldiers and 70 Federal Police officers were deployed to the Solomons Islands in a security operation that was then tipped to cost more than $1 billion over the next four years.

Following the riots, the Australian prime minister, John Howard, said : "We do not want failed states on our doorstep. Failed states create vacuums. Vacuums attract people with bad thoughts and not good intentions."

Such talk from Mr Howard has incensed prime minister Sogavare, who has regularly accussed the Australian government of inteferring in local Solomon Islands politics and "throwing his weight around."

The Australian government is currently attempting to enforce a rule that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid to local island nations, like Fiji, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, demands the involvement of Australian officials in their local governments and the training of police and military, along with a series of security-related benchmarks that must be met, in order for aid to continue to flow.

The impression amongst many islanders is that Australia is acting as 'colonialists', using promises of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid and development funds, to control the political destiny of their island nations.


April 2006 : Violence And Rioting Explodes In Solomon Islands After Shock Election Results, Chinatown District Torched

John Howard And The Union Jack Burn In Aboriginal Boxer's Video



Internationally acclaimed Aboriginal boxer Anthony Mundine has torched a portrait of prime minister John Howard and set fire to Union Jack flag in a controversial video for his first outing as a rapper.

The politically-charged song is called Platinum Ryder, and Mundine filmed the video in the Aboriginal area of Redfern, in inner Sydney, known as The Block.

Other indigenous locals are also seen shredding a photo of Howard in the clip.

From the Daily Telegraph :

The burning takes place against the background of Mundine's rags-to-riches rap lyrics: "I am just one man, it ain't the whole of the nation, politicians won't say sorry for the stolen generation.''

The former WBA world champion and rugby league star said yesterday the act symbolised justice. "This ain't being racist ... it's the politicians that are keeping us oppressed, not the public,'' he said.

"It signifies politicians and the Government and its foundations. What they have done to my people in the past and what they are still doing today.

' The Union Jack, that's the Government, that's what it was built on and it's a symbol of oppression. It's a fight for justice, we have to stand up and be counted.''

Mundine, 31, said he felt Mr Howard was "a puppet to the bigger brothers, who are England and America'' and that Australia should have a new flag. "

Big Dick Down Under

US Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Australia from February 22 to 27.

Officially he's here to thank Australia, and Australian soldiers, for support in the Iraq War, and to talk up the benefits of a continued close alliance between Australia and the United States.

Unofficially, depending on who is doing the speculating, Cheney will be meeting the prime minister, John Howard, to tell him he can bring Australia troops home from Iraq before the November elections.

Or to gauge Howard's support for Australian troops becoming more involved along Iraq's border with Iran when/if the US begins air strikes on Iran's nuclear energy facilities.

Or to get in John Howard's face and demand he commit more Australian troops to the fight in Iraq, after turning down two or more near begging requests from former defence secretary (and Cheney's best mate) Donald Rumsfeld in the last quarter of 2006.

For whatever other reasons VP Cheney has decided to grace the nation with his presence, his will not be a popular visit with the public at large. The general reaction to the news of his visit could well be described as largely hostile.

Cheney Down Under is expected to provide a pivotal focus point for anti-war protesters, who have had few international targets to rally against in Australia since the Howard government first sent troops to Iraq, starting in late 2002.

Prime Minister Howard said that because "we do not live in a very certain world," it would be seen as to "rat on your ally" to disappoint the Bush administration when it comes to the Iraq War, and, more generally, the 'War on Terror'.

"I think this would be a very bad time, difficult though it is, a very bad time to be seen to be letting the Americans down," Mr Howard said.


You can see what some of the locals think of Cheney's visit (in comments) here, and here.


Cheney Visit To Grow Debate Over The Value And Future Of The Australian-American Alliance.

News Round Up

A 10 year old boy led police on a 75km long car chase along West Australian roads. He hit top speeds of 170kmh, and only stopped when the car he'd stolen ran out of petrol. His passengers included two boys aged eight and nine years old.


Only two decades ago, Australian kids went to school with pencils and rulers in their bags and not much else. Now they're packing laptops and iPods into their back packs. The cost of putting a child through school in Australia has skyrocketed. A private school education, up to Year 12, can cost $350,000 on average. And they could still turn out to hate your guts.


Rapid climate change is expected to render the Great Barrier Reef "functionally extinct" within decades. Other key tourist attractions, like the glorious Kakadu National Park are also under threat, as are some of the most beautiful beaches on the East Coast.

The damage to some of Australia's most famous tourist attractions from climate change is expected to cost many billions of dollars and the loss of tens of thousands of tourism jobs.



An audience at a Sydney conference yesterday heard calls for the creation of global Islamic state.

The NSW premier, Morris Iemma, has freaked out and claims the conference's chief speaker had declared "war" on Australians and Australian values (still undefined, officially). He has demanded the group that held the conference, Hizb ut-Tahrir, be banned, or proscribed as terrorist supporters.

But Prime Minister John Howard, and the Attorney General, say that no laws have been broken.

Bizarrely, the Attorney General, Phillip Ruddock has sided with Muslim groups in rejecting calls for the group to be banned or proscribed as supporting terrorism and political violence.

He has told the NSW police chief and premier Iemma to "put up or shut up" on the issue of banning Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Interestingly, the man who made the vehement calls for Australian Muslims to help fight for the global Islamic state was invited to speak at a conference in Canberra in 2004, attended by the current foreign minister Alexander Downer. In fact, Downer gave the opening speech.



A 59 year old man has been jailed for 16 months after he was convicted of inflicting "unbelievably cruel" revenge on a small puppy as a way of getting back at his girlfriend.

The sick bastard smashed the puppy repeatedly with a crowbar, breaking bones and shattering its skull. The RSPCA NSW's Chief Inspector called the torture of the puppy "disturbing beyond belief".



Australia's media has been consumed in the past few days by the issue of recycling sewerage, or effluent, for drinking water. Queensland wants to do it, New South Wales refuses to do it (at least until after the coming election), West Australia says they don't need it, and Victoria has no plans to introduce it in the next decade.

The majority of Australians don't have a problem with drinking recycled sewerage (except when it's got chunks), realising that water shortages are not going to end any time soon.

The revolutionary plan by Queensland's premier Peter Beattie to turn body waste into drinkable water is making international headlines.


An Australian doctor flew to Zurich so he could have a quiet, quick and dignified death, before he was claimed by cancer. This remarkable feature tells his story.

The Australian Greens are getting ready to introduce a bill to back euthanasia inside Australia, so those wishing to end their life can do so legally, without having to leave their homeland.


Tourists visiting Sydney might want to check out this list of the city's most secluded and secret beaches. Well, they're secret only in that they aren't as crowded as Manly or Bondi Beach, and some are damn hard to get to.


On Australia Day, a massive brawl involving more than 150 drunken youths destroyed a public celebration of the national holiday in Adelaide.

Eyewitnesses claim the brawling began after a number of youths draped in the flag had it torn off them, ripped to pieces and spat on. Police are more inclined to point out the brawling had more to do with youths and alcohol than it did 'flag-related violence'.



A Bondi woman has been arrested for interfering with the council clean up of her home and yard, after a clean up crew tried to remove tons of rubbish from her yard.

The Bondi home has been tagged 'The House Of Horrors', because the yard was filled with more than 30 tons of kitchen rubbish, old computers, foam boxes, clothes, broken furniture...basically any old crap the woman found on local streets and dragged home.

She's quite industrious in her obsessive hoarding. This is the 13th time in 15 years the local council has had to empty her yard of muck and filth. She was still 'sorting' through the crap as a small bulldozer moved in and police arrested her.


A Sydney pub has opened a child care facility on its premises so that parents can eat and drink and socialise in peace. Not everyone thinks that's such a great idea.

The Daily Telegraph calls its discovery of the creche in one of Sydney's most popular pubs an "outcry", but there hasn't been any "outcry", and certainly not from the families who make use of the facilities.


In other booze news, Australian parents are giving kids as young as 12 years old alcohol, on what appears to be a fairly regular basis..

A survey reveals "the vast majority" of 14 year olds were already drinking, and ten percent of 12 year olds said they had had an alcoholic drink in the previous week.

37 percent of the kids surveyed said their most recent alcoholic drink had been served up by their parents.

US & Australian Troops To Open Up New 'War On Terror' Front In The Philippines

Australian troops will soon join the fight against Islamist militants in the Philippines. Exercises are planned in a region dubbed a "heartland" of Al Qaeda-linked fighters.

The United States already has forces deployed in the Philippines, reportedly hunting down militants liked to the Bali bomings and Jamaah Islamiah "kingpins"

From news.com.au (excerpts) :

Australia will send troops to strife-torn central Mindanao in the southern Philippines under a landmark defence agreement designed to upgrade Canberra's role in the regional fight against Islamist terrorism.

As US-backed Philippines forces close in on Bali bombers and Jemaah Islamiah kingpins Dulmatin and Omar Patek, on southern Jolo island, Australian defence forces are planning military exercises with their Philippines counterparts in the Mindanao heartland of local and foreign al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front separatist group has led an insurgency in the region for more than three decades but is now involved in official peace talks.

Already Australia has promised 30 river boats to aid local forces in their search for armed rebel groups linked to JI and the allied local kidnap-for-ransom group, Abu Sayyaf.

A local mayor in Mindanao doesn't like the idea of the Australian military deploying to the region.

He believes "foreign terrorists" will pour in to fight the Australian mlitary presence :

"The Australians should send more economic assistance, not military presence," Cotabato City's Mayor, Muslimin Sema, said. "That will just create problems. Al-Qaeda could come here and create violence as a reaction.

MORE TO COME....

Monster Floods Bring Smiles To Drought-Devastated Country Towns

Priorities Sorted - "We Won't Run Out Of Beer"

Australian farmers and the residents of dozens of outback towns across three states, have been praying for some decent rain for years. The drought has been the worst in recorded history.

In some towns, those prayers for rain have gone unanswered for five long years.

But in the last week, dozens of outback towns had their dreams come true.

They got their rains. But they got a few years worth in only a couple of days.

That's when the floods begin...

From abc.net.au :

While most of the country is in drought, floodwaters now cover large parts of northern and central Australia after heavy rainfall in the past week.

It is expected the floodwaters will reach Lake Eyre for the first time in years.

The rains have brought relief to struggling cattle stations and outback communities, though they now face weeks of isolation.

Bedourie, in south-west Queensland, promotes itself as a gateway to the Simpson Desert but it is difficult to spot the sand hills for the water at the moment.

It started with a downpour last weekend and since then, 250 millimetres of rain has fallen.

The downpour has broken all records and left part of the town flooded.

But no-one is complaining. Residents, like former station hand Jodie Girdler, are rejoicing in the boost the flood will give to the region's cattle.

"Cruise around town - you look at all the water around and you think, 'They're going to be putting out some good cattle soon and bringing some good money into the country,'" she said.

To the south, Birdsville has also been left isolated, as the Diamantina River spreads its banks across the Queensland-South Australian border.

Birdsville Hotel publican Kim Fort says his famous pub has seldom been quieter but he is taking no chances.

"We've got enough supplies at the moment and if it's here for four weeks, we'll boat some across," he said.

"We won't run out of beer."

As Birdsville is reconnected to the world, waterholes are expected to be topped up all the way to Lake Eyre, brimming with native fish and attracting huge flocks of birds.

The cities may be running out of water, but for now, a string of outback towns that were as dry as the desert sand have their water supplies taken care of.

What It Meant To Be An Australian In 1914

"They Clung To The Principle Of Standing By The Weaker Brother"

C.E.W. Bean's essential history of Australians at war during World War 1, Anzac To Amiens, includes some invaluable insights into Australian society, in the cities and in the bush, in the year before the war broke out.

In amongst all the talk today of what it means to be an Australian, it was with great interest that I found within Bean's book an encapsulating description of Australians and Australian society in the years just before the "War To End All Wars" broke out.

In only a few pages of his book, Bean manages to nail down an Australian identity rarely discussed today, or even widely recognised as an identity Australians once had and happily shared.

In many ways, the Australian society he describes in the first chapter of Anzac To Amiens - as he sets the scene for the inspiring and shocking story that follows - was never to be the same again.

The war, its crippling financial costs and its monumental casualty take shattered the width and breadth of the Australian society, from sparsely populated country villages to the tram-noisy chaos of Sydney, as it tore away (in Bean's words) "husband from wife, son from mother, (and) savings from those who had spent a lifetime in patient thrift."

How near to the optimistic heights dreamed of by those Australians, then only 14 years after Federation, have we soared in the 94 years since?

How close to their utterly essential "basic creed" and ideal of what defined an Australian do we now stand today?

Here are some excerpts from the first chapter :

In 1914, Australians were only 126 years from their first settlement in this continent...we were only 101 years from the first crossing of the Blue Mountains, only 63 (years) from the first gold rush, 58 (years) from the first establishment here of democratic self-government. Some Australian who went to the war had ancestors still alive who could remember some of the first generation of countrymen; many had grandparents or great grandparents who could tell them of the gold rush, the bushrangers, the later explorers and the imported convicts.

Yet, though many of the older men and women had actually lived in them, the colonial days were, by 1914, almost as extinct of those of William the Conqueror.

The people of the six colonies, which had federated only fourteen years before, regarded themselves as being in the forefront of human progress, and indeed, in some not unimportant respects they had reason to do so.

When emigrating from Britain most of their ancestors had half-consciously tried to cast off what they vaguely felt to be elements of inequality and injustice in the inherited social systems of Europe.

They were disrespectful of old methods, eager to try out new ones. They had of late deliberately changed the whole basis of their wage system, in an effort to adjust it to the public conscience in place of the uncontrolled results of supply and demand.

They had made many mistakes, due to vague thinking and inadequate study, but they had achieved something.

They had established at least one very great and successful industry - that of wool production - and had managed to so spread its profits that real wages were then possibly higher in Australia than anywhere else in the world; at all events the life of the ordinary man, woman and child contain probably more healthy recreation than anywhere else.

Public education then compared favourably with that of any people except perhaps those of Scandinavia; in the enjoyment of such modern material benefits as telephones and electric light Australians were ahead of the British though behind the Americans.

Probably nowhere were the less wealthy folk more truly free, or on such terms of genuine social equality with the rich, in dress, habits and intercourse....

It is true that in one respect living conditions in Australia - as in most newly-settled lands, even the United States - differed widely from those in older countries; a vast gap existed between the conditions in country and city. In the cities life was not markedly different from that of any great European or American town; but country life was in many parts still set in almost pioneering environment.

Yet the outback homesteads often contain surprising evidence of culture. It was much more than a superficial sign that the women who drove in to meet the mail train at a distant siding often dressed in the fashion of Paris, London, or New York.

And if in the bars and hostels even of the big cities at racetimes and on holidays there was sometimes evidence of the Wild West, there was little inferiority complex about the people of this particularly free country.

Its universities were in many ways progressive; its governments were launching into social experiments. Its business and political leaders thoroughly believed in its future and, with only 4 1/2 million white people (and perhaps 100,000 Australian blacks) in the continent, they borrowed freely from overseas to launch into industrial and social enterprises.

Many young Australians tended to condemn the English immigrant for his comparative slowness and lack of confidence in dealing with the unknown men and conditions, and were irritated by his certitude as to the superiority of the methods of the "old country".

The Australian ballad writers, Gordon, Lawson, Paterson, Ogilivie and others, were constantly read and quoted. The people were not formally religious, but there was a marked comradeliness in their outlook, and no degree of economic pressure could induce them to abandon it.

The people, newly federated, were at this stage very consciously intent upon building themselves into a great nation.

Without giving the matter much thought, most Australians assumed that the development of their country would be similar to that of the United States.

...with easy optimism, Australian anticipated that within a century or so her 5 million people would be increased to 60 if not 100 million.

The historian, who tries to to discover what motive most powerfully moved the Australian people at that interesting stage, will probably come to the conclusion that tradition - such as is consciously or unconsciously handed down in almost every word or action by parents and teachers to children, by priests and pastors, professional trades and business men to their successors, by witters to readers, even by older children to younger - was immensely strong and enduring.

The tradition was largely British...But with the British standards were mingled those of the pioneers - the backwoodsmen, and the men of the great ruins and the mining fields.

It was to these last that Australians owed their resourcefulness and readiness to grapple with their objectives even against authority, and also their basic creed, in industry as in war, that a man must at all costs stand by his mate.

...they clung to the principle of standing by the weaker brother.

* * * * * * * * *

Almost one in every twelve Australians alive then served in some capacity during World War 1; in Europe, the Middle East or at home.

A force of 417,000 was raised from a total population of just under 5 million people.

Some 331,000 "took the field" during the four years of WWI1.

59,342 were killed or died as a result of wounds suffered during fighting.

Another 152,000 Australians were wounded.

Of all who "took the field" during the war, 64.8% were killed or wounded.

By the start of World War 2, in 1939, more than 2000 men remained hospitalised for physical and mental injuries resulting from the war twenty years previous.

In 1939, some 50,000 veterans of the first world war visited hospitals or AIF-related medical facilities for ongoing treatment and rehabilitation.

* * * * * * * *


C.E.W Bean devoted decades of his life to writing the full story of the Australian Anzacs, and his vast official history, encompassing twelve volumes and millions of words, has proved invaluable to every modern chronicler of the war that consumed many of the very best of two generations of Australians, and left it deeply in debt to Britain and the United States.

Bean was no public servant, back in Australia combing official reports and daily casualty lists to compile an official history that met with official approval. Bean was there, he wandered many battlefields and had the life-shredded experiences of Australians at war during WW1 carved into his soul.

Remarkably, his own photos of the battle at Lone Pine detail the early edition I'm now reading.

Unfortunately, Anzacs To Amiens doesn't appear to be for sale online.

Penguin Australia last reprinted the book in 1993. Though many libraries still hold copies, you would be lucky to dig up a copy in second-hand stores. It is the kind of book that once brought becomes hard to part with.

Surely it is time for another reprinting of Anzacs To Amiens?

There's more to be discussed from this fascinating book on another day.

Happy Australia Day

"When Did You Come To Australia?"

Our increasingly gaffe-prone prime minister still hasn't completely grasped the concept that people who look Chinese or Middle Eastern or Japanse or African could have actually been born and raised in Australia.

And, therefore, are just as Australian as he is.

He seems to think if someone isn't white, or at least mostly white, then they must have immigrated here sometime after they were born.

Witness this exchange yesterday at, fittingly enough, the 'Australian Of The Year' ceremony :

At one stage, Mr Howard was heard asking one candidate, mathematician Terence Tao, "When did you come to Australia?"

"I was born in Adelaide," replied Professor Tao, who last year won the Fields Medal, the highest scientific award for mathematicians.

Professor Tao is an international celebrity (as celebrity-famous as a mathematician can get) and was prominently featured across the spectrum of Australian media, for days, when he won the spectacularly prestigious award.

But can he hit a ball with a cricket bat into the stands? That's the most important question.

It's not the first time Howard has had this kind of senility (or ingrained xenophobia) burst through his buffed to a high sheen public persona.

Meeting students a while back, Howard asked a teenage Muslim girl pretty much the same question.

She scoffed at him and said, "I was born here," in an Aussie accent broader than Howard's own.

Her classmates looked on in stunned disbelief, some shook their heads sadly at the prime minister.

"Oh," Howard replied and shrugged, then fear-grinned, and quickly exited the classroom.

You would think that any one of his 50-plus advisors, PR wizards and media specialists could help him come up with a better chit-chat question than "When Did You Come To Australia?"

Welcome to Australia, you Australians!